Mark Yevgenyevich Taimanov was born in Kharkov, Ukraine (formerly USSR) and was awarded the IM title in 1950 and the GM title in 1952. Despite this, he never devoted himself fully to chess, splitting his time and talents between the game and his career as a concert pianist. He still enjoyed several tournament successes over his lengthy career, particularly in the years 1950 to 1956 when he was considered to be among the top ten players in the world. He was a World Championship Candidate in 1953 and 1971, finishing 8th in the 1953 tournament, while in the Fischer - Taimanov Candidates Quarterfinal (1971), he was famously beaten +0 =0 -6. Although he never beat Fischer, he won many games against world champions, beating Botvinnik (twice), Smyslov (thrice), Tal (thrice), Petrosian (four times), Spassky (thrice), and Karpov.

He was more successful in national tournaments: he played in 23 USSR Championships from 1948 to 1976, which is a record equaled only by Efim Geller. In the 1952 Soviet Championship, he tied for first with Mikhail Botvinnik, but lost to him in their playoff for the title*. However, he then won the title in 1956 after a play-off with Yuri Averbakh and Boris Spassky. Playing hors concours, he won the Latvian Championship in 1949, and the Leningrad Championship in 1948, 1950, 1951, 1961 (jointly) and 1973. In 1993 and 1994 he won the World Senior Championship. In 2008, he played in his last FIDE rated tournament.

Taimanov has authored important opening works on the Dutch and Nimzo-Indian Defences, and on the Reti Opening.
As an opening theoretician, he left a legacy of openings that bear his name, including a variation in the Benoni, the King's Indian, and most notably the Sicilian, Taimanov Variation (B46) (1.e4 c5 2.♘f3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.♘xd4 ♘c6 5.♘c3 a6).

Howard: To elaborate on a couple of the above comments, according to the NYT article in today's paper, Taimanov DID favor a baby at 77.

Not only that, it's rather surprising that the article conveniently forgot to mention exactly HOW Taimanov qualified for the 1971 Candidates. In other words, his blatantly suspicious last-round interzonal game, with the late Matulovic, wasn't mentioned.

cunctatorg: Just to quote a <paavoh's> post from above: <Sad, sad news, ... An era is ending.>

Well, many of the men and women of this era lived in the midst of a worldwide turmoil, tragedy and horrors but they proved that they were -more or less- able to fight for a better world and they delivered to us a inheritance of determination and respect for life, they fought <against the dying of the light>...

Hence, I hope that they also delivered to us a strong and convincing example!!
These are the main reasons I have great respect for many a man of that era!

"That same year Mr. Taimanov tied for first with Mr. Botvinnik in the Soviet championship, but he lost a playoff for the title. He tied for first again in 1956, but this time he prevailed in a playoff against Mr. Spassky and Yuri Averbakh. Altogether, he played in <23 Soviet championships,> a record he shared with Efim Geller."

It's amazing to me that a person would have the time required to excel in both pursuits. Seems rare.

vonKrolock: An entire page obituary on the November 30th edition of "The Times" illustrated with (a o) a large photo of "young" Taimanov (in fact a known portrait of Leonid Stein!) Details on the chesshistory.com Feature Article "Chess: Mistaken Identity" (Thanks again Mr Winter!)

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